Book X The Identical
by purple roze
Summary: After meeting a girl at a candy store, Tobias goes to her house for dinner. When he makes a choice, what will the Ellimist show him? Takes place between books 33 and 35. Written as close to K.A.A as possible.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer:  
i do not own any part of any Animorph. too bad. it's a good story. sigh. i also do not own a car, house or boy. for a full list of things i do not own, look in the dictionary.

AN: please note: thought speak is going to be as follows ((this))

CHAPTER 1

My name is Tobias and I am with Ax. The people around us are looking at Ax funny.

It's not like people don't normally look at Ax funny. He is very funny when he is human. You see he is usually an Andalite. When he is an Andalite, people don't look at him funny, they run, and if they are a controller they try to kill him.

Okay, let me back up. Ax is not from around here, because he is an Andalite. They look sort of like a mix between a deer, human and scorpion. Like a centaur, but with these stacked eyes and a wicked fast tail with a shorm blade at the end. You see I know his tail is fast. I've seen him use it, killing Holk-Bajir, taxxon, and anything else with a yeerk in its head.

Okay, now you are really confused. Well buddy, Earth is being invaded. Not by cute, cuddly, little green aliens, but by yeerks. They are a parasitic race. They go into your head and control you. They take you over with the utmost of control. You can't move your own eyes. The yeerks move them. You can't scream, stomp or cry. They do that for you.

You are stuck inside your own head. Nasty? Well, it gets worst. Not the yeerks, but the fact that the only ones who are keeping them at bay are the Animorphs.

There are five of us. There is Ax, the Andalite, Jake, our leader, Cassie, the understanding, Marco, the goof, and Rachel, the warrior.

Rachel, if I wasn't how I am I would probably be a lot more serious with her. More like Cassie and Jake are. They like each other. And well, they can show it I guess. It's sorta hard to hug a bird.

Yes, I am Tobias, the almighty Bird-boy. A red-tailed hawk actually. At least I'm not a jay. So yes, there are just five kids and an alien to stand up against the yeerks. Don't start betting yet. We animorphs each have a special power, which is why I am Bird-boy.

The morphing technology gives us the ability to morph or change into any animal we touch. There are some very powerful morphs, but there are some drawbacks with morphing. You can only stay in a morphed form for two hours. Any more then that and you stay in that form permanently. You can't dimorph, so you become a nothlit.

Nothlit is the Andalite term for what I am. I got stuck in my hawk morph, so I am Bird-boy. That changed when Ellimist, a very powerful creature, gave me back my power to morph. He twisted time so I could morph into my old body. It's a long story.

So now here I am, at the mall in the candy shop and joining my fellow customers in giving Ax a very funny look.

-----thanks to ImperialJedi for reading and spell checking my beta! i simply caanott spel withoutt youe!-----


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: as always i do not own Animorphs. But i do own a cool pair of shoes... 

CHAPTER 2

He was eating candy. No big deal right?

Wrong.

Andalite do not have mouths, so when Ax morphs into a human (a combo between all of us Animophs, excluding me), he has the sense of taste, and, well, it can be a little overwhelming at times.

"This chocolate is sweet, eet... weeeeet, sweet!" They also do not talk with their mouths, but communicate though something called thought-speak. So mouth sounds are very… interesting with Ax.

Very interesting.

"Ax! We cannot take that, we didn't buy it," Rachel said, looking annoyed. She just wanted to go shopping.

"But it is this box. Ox. Locks? Those words sound alike. They are not locked in this box."

"Yes, but we need to pay for them, Ax," I tried to explain.

"Oh…" he looked sheepish. "Can we, um… buy some please?"

"Sure Ax," Rachel answered. She went up to the counter, and the girl there looked over at Ax as if he was crazy.

"Hi, my um… my friend," she started.

"He's an alien, huh?"

The color went out of Rachel's face. "What?"

"Foreign, right? I get a lot of those in here, they always go nuts for well, the chocolate with nuts." She smiled. I looked at her, and I seemed to know that smile from somewhere. I shook the feeling off.

"I won't charge you for the candy he ate, the show was enough, but I would recommend a few things."

"And what's that," Rachel asked with a bit of a sneer.

"Well, first you buy him lots of cheep chocolate, and second, give him this, but don't let him swallow it."

"What is that," I asked, coming over.

"It's called an alien ball. You lick or suck on it until it's gone. Should last the kid a while."

"Um, thanks," I said. She smiled again, and I got that weird feeling again.

Then, as if she read my mind, she asked, "Have we met before?"

"Um, no, I don't think so. What school do you go to?"

She told me, but it was a different one then the one I went to before I became a nothlit. Rachel gave the girl a look that said, "He is my Bird-boy! Back off or else I will stomp you with my elephant morph!" She has an elephant morph, and she likes it a lot.

"No, no, its not that I... Oh, never mind..." She rang up the chocolate and three alien balls. We wanted to keep Ax busy.

As we turned to leave, she called out to us, "Hey, um, my name is Tabitha, and um... Can I make all of you dinner?"

Ax looked at Rachel, then me and said, "Dinner? Will there be cinnamon buns, bunzzz buh nunzzz involved?"

"Yes, I could make some, if you want."

Tabitha smiled again, and since that smile seemed so familiar, I blurted out before Rachel could kick me "Yes!"


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I so still do not own Animorphs. But sometimes i wish i could own a bird. 

CHAPTER 3

I went back and set a date for four days from now. That way we could watch her.

"Hey, what's your favorite food?" Tabitha continued before I could open my mouth. "No, don't tell me I'll guess. I'm good at that."

Rachel looked as if she was going to eat Tabitha. She gave us her address and then we left.

Rachel was barely in composure. Ax, well, Ax well barely in composure as well, but mostly because of all the chocolate.

Rachel was just mad. As soon as we got out of the mall, she looked at me with eyes like fire. Her voice was cold as she whispered to me, "If you wanted to see other people, fine, but you should have told me."

"No Rachel, it's not like that." I struggled to explain. "I think I know her, but I don't know from where. I just get this feeling…"

"Like what, Tobias? You don't think I get feelings? Feelings like seeing a movie then going to dinner without worrying about you demophing? Feelings like wanting to dance and hug? FEELINGS LIKE THAT?" She was mad if her shouting was any indication.

She is dangerous when she is mad. "Look Rachel, it's not like that. I, I really like you Rachel, but she gives me the feeling of, well, family." She stopped there, looking over at Ax, who was working painfully at an alien ball.

You see I don't really have any other family but Ax. He is my uncle. Strange, isn't it? Oh yes. His brother morphed into a human for a long time. He had a wife, and then a kid, me. Then the Ellimist took him back and gave him back his Andalite body and he fought in the war against the yeerks. In the last hour of his life he came to earth and gave five kids the power to morph. We were those five kids.

Now, I, Bird-boy have a centaur for an uncle. This is what is normal for me.

"Family?" I looked into her blue eyes. They were blue like the sky where I lived.

"Yes, family," I answered thinking of my human family who had never been much. As a kid I thought my dad had died. My mom went off when I was about five, and since then I have been passed back and forth between uncles and aunts. None of which are Andalites. Now they think I'm with someone else, and I can fly free, but with one uncle who really cares. "Okay, well if it is a family thing, then we need to get you something to wear, and Ax too, he is going, and I should get something, too."

"You're going," I asked. I was surprised. From the look she gave Tabitha I thought she hated her.

"Of course! She is a very sweet girl, just as long as she isn't competition." Good old Rachel.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Animorphs. I do not own Animorphs. I do not own Animorphs. I do not own... 

CHAPTER 4

I was busy for the next four days. You see, we cannot tell by just looking if someone has a yeerk in his or her head. We have to watch them because yeerks have a weakness. Every three days they must come out of their host's body and absorb kandrona rays in a yeerk pool.

So we were watching Tabitha to see if she was a Controller. Ax and I did most of the work, seeing as we didn't have any family to worry about, but the rest did what they could.

"Aww, come on Cassie! I want to go spider morph!" Marco whined.

"You just want to do that because that's where the bathroom person is going to be," Cassie said. We have quite an array of bug morphs, one of which is a daddy long legs.

"So is there anything wrong with that?" he asked innocently.

"Yes," Everyone said in unison.

"Is there something inappropriate in the bathroom?" Ax asked.

"No, nothing, just a possible shower. It's not like I would see anything with the spider morph anyway."

"Yes Ax," Cassie answered. "Looking at the other gender when they are without clothes is not appropriate."

He answered still not understanding, "Oh."

Cassie was in the bathroom in spider morph, Marco a fly in the living room, and Ax and I were outside. We were watching for if she leaves. Ax was morphed into a northern harrier and I was in my own bird body.

After four days, it was uneventful. No trips to the yeerk pool. There had just been normal everyday things. However, she was a very interesting girl.

She had taken a shower, and had also seen Cassie in spider form. Unlike most girls, she scared Cassie into a spot where she wouldn't get wet. Then she let her be.

Cassie approved.

"I like her, she doesn't kill unless she must" We were debriefing to Jake, who couldn't be there. Jake is our leader. He didn't ask to be the leader, but that's why, because he didn't ask. He just is.

"Yeah, she is very cool. She didn't try to kill me either. One of her friends did, but not her." That would be Marco.

"Well you said you would go, but I would still like all of us to be there, in one form or another." Jake said.

Marco whined again as was his habit, "Man I think I spend more time as a bug then I do as myself."

"Well, if I were you I would like it that way," remarked Rachel.

"Ha ha," was the sarcastic reply.

So it was planned. Jake, Cassie and Marco were going to attend as bugs, most likely as flies, while Rachel, Ax, and I went as ourselves, to a very normal dinner date.

Yeah right.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: perhaps some day i'll own something as cool as Animorphs, but for now... I don't own Animorphs. 

CHAPTER 5

I knocked on the door.

"Come on in, the door is open!" I twisted the doorknob, an act in which I would have been defeated by if I had been a hawk. We piled in.

Ax sniffed the air. He was in human morph in all its bizarreness. "Smells like bunzzz, buh ha nezzzz."

"Ax, er… Max, yes it does smell like cinnamon buns. Now let's sit down." We sat at the table, and Tabitha came out with a plate full of cinnamon buns.

"Here you go, oh my, I don't know your name," she said.

"Max, my name is Max," but he had already started with the cinnamon buns so it came out like "Muff, mi mame ef muff."

"His name is Max." I answered for him.

"And you," pointing to Rachel, "I figured at first you were just a dumb blond, but that look you gave me, wow, so I made you a cheese burger with fries, and a chef salad."

"Wow, you're good," Rachel answered impressed.

She brought out the burger and Ax eyed it. Before it could develop into a really bizarre situation, Tabitha bought out another burger," I know foreign kids want to try everything, so I made him a little bit of everything."

"Good idea," I commented.

"So, uh, where are your parents? And why do you cook?" Rachel asked.

From the kitchen she answered, "My dad died and my mom is working. She works a lot and so I learned to cook. I really got tired of TV dinners."

She came out with another plate. Even with my weak human sense of smell I could recognize the blood.

"And for you, you were hard, but a deer stake, rare. If I had rabbit... I think I would have gone for that, but deer is as close as I could get." Tabitha presented hesitantly. "If it is too rare I can cook it some more."

"No, no it's fine," I said awestruck. How did she know? Was it just a lucky guess?

I had to ask, "How did you know?"

"Well, your eyes, they seemed, well hard," described our host who looked momentarily thoughtful and unsure of her own answer. "Gosh, I don't know. I just guessed."

"And what are you having?" Rachel asked in curiosity.

Tabitha blushed, "Well, see that is the strange part." She brought out a plate that was identical to mine. "It's the same as Tobias'."

We looked at each other hard for a few seconds. Even Ax had stopped eating. Then there was a sound of a key in a lock. We all jumped.

"Oh, don't worry it's just my-." She stopped mid-sentence as the door opened. Then things got really weird.


	6. Chapter 6

i do not own animorphs. i do not make money off of animorphs. sigh... 

CHAPTER 6

"…Mother."

I looked around; darned human eyes are so weak compared to the eyes of a hawk. I saw nothing, but something was strange. Everybody but Tabitha and I were frozen in place. Then I saw him, the one who could warp time.

"The Ellimist?"

"Yes, it is I again."

"Not interfering as usual?" The Ellimist, though very powerful, was not allowed to intervene in other races. He said this, but some of his actions proved otherwise. He is the one who gave me my morphing power back, though at the time seemed like a trick. I had thought he would give me back my human body. But that has since come and gone.

"Of course not," came a voice, from nowhere and everywhere at once.

"What's going on?" asked Tabitha, not scared, just concerned. Why could she move and no one else?

"Um, I'm not sure exactly…" I answered as I looked over the table, trying to spot my friends in fly morph with my lame human eyes.

I saw two in the air, then a third on the untouched burger, near Ax. No doubt it was Marco.

"So what are you not interfering in now?" Then in front of me came a shimmer, and out of that shimmer came a man. The man was young, with blondish-brown hair. It was much like what I used to have, though mine had been more brown than blond. He was in his young 30's.

"Another image to gain our trust, no doubt?" I asked cruelly.

"I have come to show you something," he answered ignoring my question.

"What I will show you may change the course of the war with the yeerks as you know it. It depends how you decide."

"Yeerks? What are those?" Tabitha asked. Gosh, this is bad.

"You are stepping onto dangerous ground here, you are forcing a hand." I answered sharply.

The man, or the Ellimist masked as the man, shrugged his shoulders.

"I will erase her memories as necessary, but first you must make a choice. You must take one other on this journey. Then all three of you will be reduced to your first form, be taken away, and then brought back to make a decision."

"Decision? First form? This is too much, I'm not Jake!"

"Who's Jake?" Tabitha asked me.

I finished, "and I am not going to decide any fate of anything."

"Choose someone now, or else it'll be too late, she will know too much."

"Fine, fine! Just let me think." I put my beak into my wing. Er, at least I tried. It resulted in my forehead getting bonked on my own arm.

I ran though the possibilities in my head. My first thought was of Rachel. She was tough and could handle anything. Then I thought of Jake, if a decision was to be made it would be best for him to go.

As for the others, Cassie would be good too, because she could understand Tabitha, and try to help her. Marco would be good if I needed to see how it would help or harm the rest of us. And Ax, well, considering his first form, he is a bit stuck out there.

Just as I was thinking this the Ellimist said, "Your group is so interesting, Tobias. It is much like a big family."

Then it struck me, where I had seen her smile before, why it had seemed so familiar. I hadn't seen it in many months. Even in human morph I didn't smile very often, it was too much of a hawks gaze.

The smile looked like mine.

He said family… family. The only family I knew I had was Ax, so out loud I said, "I choose Ax."

"Choice made."


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: ok, so i guess i do not own animorphs. but i do own my um.. wait, i have a note somewhere over here of what i own.. oh.. wait, it is not here becuse i do not own anything. 

CHAPTER 7

We were instantly in a different place, a vastly different place. For one, I was much closer to the ground. I had resumed being a hawk. I looked around.

Walls. I hate walls. No wind at all. No head wind, no tailwind. Not even a breeze.

I saw Ax standing just to my left. Tabitha, her eyes wide not with fear, but with wonder, was to my right. We seemed to be in a brightly lit hallway, which was quiet for now.

"Yo, you... you're from… You're from my dreams!" Tabitha whispered looking at Ax.

I looked around again, and heard footsteps. ((Ax, people. Hide now.))

He looked around with his four eyes for someplace we could go in. He saw a door, opened it, found it was empty and dark, and then ushered us in.

((Ax can you turn on the light?))

((How would I do that?)) he replied. Duh, of course Ax wouldn't know how to work human light switches. He hadn't been in his human morph that often, and all of his technology was based off of thought-speak.

"Here, let me do it." Tabitha went over and turned on the light. On the light went and we took a look at where we were. I saw wood on the walls, a few books on a small table, and a plush chair. I fluttered to the chair and landed upon it for a better view.

I saw the books with the hawk vision I had. There was a New Testament, an Old Testament, a Koran, and a few others I didn't recognize.

((Ax I think we are in a hospital, and I think this is like the praying room or something.))

"Actually, it is a 'meditation room', and we can lock it if you want," Tabitha said, nearly scaring me off my perch.

I had forgotten she was there. Most people, unless they were a controller often ran and screamed when they saw Ax.

She didn't do either, and she wasn't a controller. I considered this carefully for a moment or two. ((Ya, go ahead and lock the door.))

"Ok, now first things first. What are you?" she asked Ax.

((I am an Andalite. Why are you unafraid?))

It occurred to me then that Ax was just as freaked out about this as I was, and he didn't have the introduction given to me by the Ellimist.

"I see one like you in my dreams."

This answer seemed to suffice for now. Ax then turned to me and asked, ((Where are we? What are we doing here?))

I told him about the Ellimist. He stiffened. To the Andalites, the Ellimist was often depicted in fairy tales as a trickster.

((What does he want with us this time?))

((I don't know, Ax-man, but he wants to show us something.))

"Wait, hold on. The bird, you're talking, and you sound like Tobias. How is this happening?" She then started to look scared. That relieved me. With this much weirdness I was scared, so she should have been wetting her pants.

((Well, uh...))How much do I reveal to her? I thought to myself. The Ellimist said that memories could be erased, as needed. At least as he saw needed. I didn't trust him, so I stuck with the truth in its most minimal form.

((I have the technology to change from one beast to another, but I can only stay that way for two hours at a time. Over that and I become stuck. The Ellimist-))

"The one who brought us here?" she asked.

((Yes. He gave me the technology back, and warped time so I could then morph my body. You see it is an alien technology developed by the race of my friend here, Ax.))

The only thing Tabitha could manage was "Wow."

((Yes, very much "wow".))

"So why are we in a hospital?" she asked.

((I have no idea. Oh, Ax, a hospital is-))

((I know what a hospital is, Tobias, I saw them on "The Young and the Restless". They seemed to cure memory failure, and other human ailments.))

Ax has a television, and sometimes it gets strange.

"Why are we here?" the girl asked impatiently.

((I don't know, but I think Ax and I should morph into humans, even if the clothes are funny.)) You see, we have never figured how to morph clothing, except the minimal skin tight garb we call morphing outfits.

(This may seem a little strange, but it'll be okay.) I said, trying to reassure Tabitha.

I started the morph. I am always struck by the irony that unlike my other friends, I have to morph into a human. But I guess, so does Ax.

Every morph is different and as I watched Ax his front legs and feet got sucked into his body like spaghetti. His blue fur then faded as his arms stretched, and his too many fingered hands molded themselves into 10 fingers. Hoofs to toes, and a chasm opened up to form a mouth.

I was going along similar changes, my feathers flattened first so I looked like a plucked chicken. Then I grew, taller and taller. Arms grew out of wings, and my feet grew from talons.

A minute later we were done. I looked over at Ax, then Tabitha and said, "Let's go find what the Ellimist wants us to see."


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: thank you i'm flattered, but no, i do not own Animorphs. 

CHAPTER 8

We poked our heads outside the door. Seeing that it was all clear, we then walked as casually as we could out into the hallway. We found the receptions desk, and stopped to look around at all the people.

Now, I'm not a fashion person at all, that's Rachel's department, but these people seemed, well, out of date in the world of clothing. It was something Rachel would call "retro".

The people seemed normal otherwise. There were parents trying to keep their kids at bay, sick wives with hubbys, and the works.

It was a busy waiting room for a hospital.

I looked around and saw a man reading a paper, and even with the lame human eyes I currently had I could not miss the date...

"Hey! It's my birthday," I heard Tabitha say next to me. She was examining a calendar on the desk of the receptionist.

I checked the date of the paper… and the date on the calendar… and checked then the year. Tabitha didn't seem to have noticed the year.

It was the year I was born, in the month I was born, and on the day I was born.

"We seemed to have gone into the past," Ax blurted out.

"Major understatement."

"What do you mean," asked Tabitha. She still had not noticed the year, but then she took a closer look. Awe filled her eyes. "Hey! This is the year I was born in!"

I looked at her. Our smiles were the same, and our birthday, too. Could she be... No, there had been nothing of the sort, at least as I had been told.

_Get a grip, Tobias. The Ellimist mentions "family" and you get all excided_. My thoughts were interrupted when a woman just coming in caught my attention. She was a very large and very, very pregnant woman.

She was someone who when she smiled, looked like me...

It was my mother.

A/N look! its my first Auther's note! yay. ok but really. this is a new turn. and i want to thank all those people who have been reviewing. and if you are interested in the history of this story, check out my profile. yes, this story is already written, we just need to um... spell check, and trust me thats an understatement. so enjoy the story!


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: i do not own Animorphs. please do not sue me. all you would get are lots of college loans, and a small collection of used tissues. 

CHAPTER 9

The woman came in… fast, "My water broke! I need a doc, now!" Quickly she was put in a wheelchair and taken to maternity.

"Ax, did you know who that was?" I hissed, "That, that was my mother!"

"Hey! I didn't know mom had kids!"

"What," I turned to Tabitha and asked in surprise.

"My mom, she adopted me when I was about 6 years old. She never told me she had a kid. Maybe she felt bad or something..."

This added a spin on things, "You were adopted?"

"This is quite interesting. I think the Ellimist is showing us something, Tobias." That would be Ax of course.

"Should we follow," I asked.

Tabitha answered, "Why not?"

"It is why we are in this place." Ax commented.

With that decided we followed the screams of my mother's labor. If I had felt out of place before, when I was a hawk in a hospital, I felt really strange now. Here I was, in the maternity ward, following my mother next to a morphed alien, in biking shorts, no less.

Man, my life was weird. And all i wanted was a rat.

Then a voice called out from behind us, "Hey! You kids have to wait at the baby window."

"Um sorry, doc, our, er, my mother,"

"It's okay boy, right over there to the left. Your brother or sister will be out soon."

"Thanks." We made our way to the window.

I looked though the window. I saw empty cribs, cribs with blue or pink blankets, and some cribs already holding babies.

My last name, what was it? Right, I remembered and looked at each and every nameplate for my last name.

Then a nurse came onto the scene, and put a label with a last name on one crib. My last name, then she stopped at the crib next to it, and put a name on that one, too. I looked confused, was that also my last name?

"Ax there are two cribs, why two?"

"I do not understand, why are the children in boxes? We're they bad?"

"No. Ax, is your name now? After babies are born they are cleaned and put in these cribs so that the mother can rest." Tabitha answered.

"Oh," of course he still didn't understand, but I had bigger things on my mind besides that. Why were there two cribs with my last name?

Then a nurse came in and put a baby wrapped in blue blanket in one box. In pen, she wrote above the last name, "Tobias". My name, that's me!

I shouted excitedly, "Ax, that's me! That's me!"

"This is all very strange."

"Gosh, I wish I knew my last name. I think I was born in this hospital. Maybe I could see myself, too."

As if the nurse heard us, she came in with a pink bundle and laid it in the crib next to mine, the other one with the same last name as mine. She then wrote in the name "Tabitha".

"I think I know your last name now, Tabitha."


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: In my last effort to take over the world i failed to become an owner of Animorphs. Sorry. 

CHAPTER 10

"I believe that you and Tabitha are related. Re…lay. Ted, ted. Ted?"

"Yes it would seem like it. Twins is what it is called, Ax-man." I looked over at Tabitha. She seemed confused, worried and scared.

I was lost. My mother, she left me, to... "Tabitha? That's your adoptive mom?"

"Well, I thought so. She adopted me when I was five, but I guess she is my real mom."

So my mother left me to take care of, of… her? She had left me between two relatives?

Tabitha continued not noticing the expression taking over my face, "I'm glad she came back, even if she did leave me at first."

"I bet," I answered cruelly.

"No, that week, there was going to be this organization that was going to take over the orphanage. When stuff like that happens, there often is a bit of mayhem."

"What organization? Organizzzzzation? Zzzzaaa?" asked Ax.

"Well, they were called what was it? Something nice sounding… The Sharing, I think." I looked at her. If my mother hadn't left me, Tabitha would have had a yeerk in her head. I felt foolish.

"That is very clever, you know, Tobias? Children are very impressionble." Ax had caught on to it too, then. What an easier target then an orphan child. Even if they didn't get adopted they would grow up eventually.

But why leave at all? Why not take care of both of us? Why leave one?

"I am thinking something this all seems very important to you, but why leave us at all, um, brother?" She sounded strange saying it. It was strange to hear it. This girl, this girl with brown hair and green eyes that seemed to pierce. She was related, and not just that. She was a twin sister.

"Um, we could go find out. Ax, I think bugs? Cockroach?"

"That would be good, I think, but what about Tabitha?"

"She won't know me. I could ask her or just stand around the corner or something. Just as long as my past self doesn't see me, or else the universe will explode." Both Ax and I looked at her funny.

"Is that human humor?" Ax asked.

"Great Scott! It was a stab at it at least." she answered.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: i do not own a up dated student id card, or animorphs. but i do own something. look up the word "nothing" in the dictionary. thats what i own. 

CHAPTER 11

We went back to the meditation room. "Um... Tabitha, this isn't going to be pretty, so… you may want to stand guard." Morphing is never pretty, but morphing into something that isn't pretty is worse.

"Yea, no problem. It's sort of creepy anyway," she stepped out.

Ax and I both had to resort to our usual form before going in to another morph. This meant a hawk for me, and for Ax, an Andalite. After we got into our usual bodies, Ax asked ((Why is the Ellimist showing us this?))

((I'm not sure, but I'm sure it is something.)) We started to morph into roaches. My wings started to meld into a hard shell. Antenna sprouted out, and I shrank. Then 3 more sets of legs shot out, Pop! Pop! Pop!

Finally, the instincts of the insect kicked in._ Runrunrunrunrunrunrunrun!_

I controlled these easily. I had used roach many, many times.

((Tabitha? We are done... Will you open the door for us? We need to find her.))

I felt air above us move. "Can you hear me?" she asked.

((Yes, but you'll have to be our eyes in the sky.)) I laughed at that. On most missions I was just that. Since I have been permanently in hawk morph, I do not have a time limit to how long I could hang in the air and do surveillance.

Tabitha must have been looking down at us. "Can you follow me?" she kindly inquired.

((Yes.)) Thundering steps walked out of the room. We followed her huge tennis shoes.

Cockroaches from a human level look fast, but from a roach's perspective there is nothing faster. Imagine yourself strapped to the bottom of a racecar, just inches off the ground, and then have that car go 100 mph. That is what it's like running in roach morph.

She walked to the desk again. "Uh, hi. I'm looking for, um," she stammered a bit and it occurred to me that she might not know if her name was he real name...

Laura, at least to me, her name is Laura.

"Laura." She gave the last name, too, but if I give you the last name, my friends and I would be dead.

"Okay, she just had twins! Oh, that's so sweet! She should be taken over to maternity room 356," the receptionist told her.

"Thank you!" Tabitha answered sweetly.

We walked down the lengthy corridors. Finally, we got to the room. Ax and I went in. She stayed out, listening in.

"Al? Oh, Al? Al Fangor?" The name my mother was calling out sounded familiar, but it was Ax who figured it out and broke his silence.

((Al Fangor? That sounds like, like Elfangor. She is talking to my brother!)) Ax exclaimed.

AN: sorry for the long in between up dates.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I do not own Animorphs! Now leave me be, I am reading.

CHAPTER 12

((I can't see anything!)) I yelled in thought speak. I wanted to see, yes, I wanted to see. I needed to find out what he looked like, what set of genes he had, which ones I had inherited.  
One of Ax's cockroach antennae twitched. ((We must remain calm. I want to see him also, but we are not in position. Tabitha is.)) It was reasonable. It was logical. It just wasn't fair.

Fine. I called to my twin sister, ((Tabitha? Can you come into the room and then decide that you need to go someplace else. I think my, I mean, our father is in there. )) I first felt her steps which were soon followed by the sound of her voice.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought this was my aunt's room. You seem to be in here on your own?"  
Listening in I asked, (Who was she talking to?))  
"I thought I heard you talking to someone?" Tabitha asked politely.   
"I was." she sighed. "My husban- well, the father of my children. But, he is gone. It has been for about eight months now. I just now remembered his name again. I was," she paused while the air remained filled with emotion. "I was talking, hoping he would hear me."  
"Oh, um, do you mind, um, I have some friends, and we have nothing to do, and well, I'm sure they would like to hear this story."  
"Sure, bring them in."  
"Okay, I'll be right back." She walked out of the room.

We ran. Ax and I ran like there was no tomorrow. We demorphed and remorphed faster then we had in our entire life. In human form, we ran back to her room, my mother's room.  
"We are back," Tabitha announced.  
"Oh good. I'm a little lonely. I haven't found any one since he left."   
"Actually, I can't even remember him most of the time. I just know that I was pregnant. And now I'm not, and I didn't know who the father was. Now I do, but I'll forget again." She said it so simply.  
She knew, I thought. Why? Why would she forget my father?  
"Memory Replacers?" Ax whispered under his breath.  
"Yes, how did you know?" she asked.  
"We are Andalites, investigating Elfangor," I said quickly. It was close enough to the truth, I didn't feel to bad about lieing to my mother.  
She nodded, "Of course, something like this was bound to happen."   
"Often intense pain, paaeeein, peeen, pain. Breaks the memory seal for a short time." Ax added helpfully.  
she smiled, "Al used to do that...play with words...Anyway, yes, that would make sense. I feel it slipping away already. I just wish my children would know of him. How great he was. How great he was even for a human, and an Andalite."  
"They will know. We will make sure of it." Ax said proudly. Tears were coming out of his eyes. Not just his eyes, I realized, but Tabitha's as well, and my own.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: ha ha i do not own Animorphs, if i did the spelling would be worse!

CHAPTER 13

We left. The hardest thing for someone to do is leave. I knew that, and she will know that. We went back to the nursery.We looked at the baby counterparts of my sister and me again. Then a nurse took me, but she never came back for Tabitha.

"But why? Why did she leave me?" she sobbed.

IT WAS I.

"The Ellimists?" the air around us stopped. Babies in mid cry were like still pictures.

I TOLD HER THE SAFETY OF THE WORLD AND THE HUMAN RACE DEPENDED ON HER TAKING ONE NOW, AND THEN TAKING ONE LATER.

"And she believed you?" I asked.

IT WOULD SEEM LIKE IT. IT WAS HER CHOICE.

"But why?" I asked.

"Isn't it obvious? If we had both gone, you would not have been what you call a bully magnet...maggg. net. Then you would have not met Jake, then your father, who gave you this power." Ax said.

"So all this was so that I could be… well what I am?" I said being weary of Tabitha.

NOT JUST YOU TOBIAS, BUT ALSO TABITHA. NOW A CHOICE MUST BE MADE.

We were then put back at the exact moment where we left at dinner. I heard someone come in the door.

"My mother!" Tabitha said in alarm.

"It's ok," I answered. "She doesn't know us." She came in. Looking a little different then I had remembered. Older mostly.

"Hi Tabitha! Guests, I see? Well, I just stopped by for this," she grabbed a letter. "I need to get back to the office." she walked behind me, then looked at me strangely.

"You... you look… hmm, too much coffee I guess." She went back out the door. Tabitha looked around before smiling and stretching, "Ax, your friends?

They are here too?"

Ax smiled. "Yes, Tabitha, my niece."

"Then may I tell them a story?"


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: sorry, but I do not own Animorphs. Now back to the madness.

Chapter 14

Everyone demorphed, everyone but Ax and I. We stayed human. Even if she didn't know half of the yeerk part, Tabitha told a remarkable story.

As she told it, I remembered. I remembered her face, her voice, and her desire for us to know, know how he was.

I do mother. I do.

I know he was the best of his race. Even running away from fighting. I know he killed more yeerks then anyone could count. I know he was a commander, a prince of his race.

I know if he had stayed, he would have been a good father. I know that he would have been proud of me, and what I have done. I know he would have been proud of his younger brother, and his allegiance to his prince, Jake.

After the story was told, everyone looked at me, then at Tabitha. Ax had interjected when he had to, telling more about the yeerks.

"I do see a resemblance," Marco said. "She even has the hard look of a hawk. Do I see feathers?" Everyone laughed. He was right in a way, she did have an intensity in her eyes, that suggested that she wanted to fight.

Even if she is my twin, I am still a hawk.

A strange creation I am. Born human, with an alien father, just to be stuck as a hawk. Then given the chance to go back... only to stay and fight as a hawk.

"So what do we do," Rachel asked.

YOU DECIDE.

"Decide what?" I asked, knowing full well what the decision was to be about. I looked at Tabitha, her head nodding, she knew, with all the information she knew, she could not go on living as she was. Something in her life had to change.

YOU DECIDE WHETHER SHE IS GOING TO BE ONE OF YOU, OR ONE OF THEM.

beta notes: Chapter editing dedicated to kimi-lee22 from ImperialJedi.


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: Until I steal Animorphs, it will remain out of my hands, I do not own it. I am trying though.

Chapter 15

"Us or them?" Rachel exploded. "This is so not fair at all! That's great Tobias, that you have family and all, but remember last time we made a new Animorph?"

"Yes, that was very unfortunate." Ax replied.

Marco cursed. "This isn't right. We don't even know you. I'm sorry but this can't turn out well. How many dejected Animorphs are we going to have?"

There was a silence. The last time we made a new Animorph he turned on us and we made him a Nothlit, a rat. I try to not hunt over where we left him.

"Well, shouldn't we tell her what she is getting herself into, and maybe she wouldn't want to do it," Cassie said. "The Ellimist said he would erase her memory if necessary."

"That's a good idea." Jake answered. "Who wants to tell her?" He looked at everyone. I knew he wanted me to. I knew I would have to, but this sort of thing is scary. I just met my sister, and I don't want to open up with something that will give her nightmares just listening.

((Its my turn to tell you a story.)) I told her about the Yeerks. I explained how they infest the brain though the ear canal, and how they sink into every crevice. They have done this to Gedds, Taxxons, Hork-Bajir, and now humans. Tabitha paid rapt attention when I spoke of how only one Andalite had fallen victim to the Yeerks, and how he possessed many dangerous morphs.

"Who is fighting this?" she asked, her eyes wide.

((That's the depressing part.)) I went on to tell her that only the six of us were holding back a race of parasites. I told Tabitha about my father, our father's last moments. I continued with a description of our winning battles, losing battles, and the battles where nothing was achieved. We had fought, lost our blood, lost our identity, and lost our childhood. She needed to know all the nitty gritty facts.

Cassie would have sugarcoated it, said it is all for a greater good. I didn't. I told her that sometimes we have to make decisions that make us almost as bad as the yeerks.

Marco would have said we are hurting them. I didn't. I told her about how we have been hurt, and how in some ways the yeerks have won more then they had lost.

Rachel would have said it is what I was born for. I didn't. I told her sometimes I was so scared and I just wanted to be the kid who was normal and picked on.

Jake would have said it is a big responsibility. I didn't. I told her how some of our plans are not plans at all, but really hair brain schemes that we come up with on the fly, and how we fly, along with how we do use our power for some enjoyment.

Ax would have said it is our duty. I did not. I told her that this war is not our duty, but our choice, and at any time we can quit, and how a few of us have and we may again.

What I did say came from a place I have to live in every day. The hunt and kill instinct of a predator. Just the facts as I know them, no assuming, no sweetening, no thinking it is fate, just a hawk's eye view of things. From this Tabitha got the facts.

We looked at her as she took it all in. We were not sure how she would react to it, or how she should react to it.

She sat, slumped in her chair, looking at her feet, and tears rolling down her cheeks.

"You don't have to decide anything now." Cassie said attempting to make her feel better.

"No, I do," Tabitha responded in a determined voice. "You see I know I have to help, if you'll let me. This thing is too big, too hard. Ignorance is bliss, but I am afraid that this bliss has come to an end."

"So that's the question now? Do we let you?" Marco said sarcastically. "Great! What an easy choice. Let's flip a coin for it."

Cassie butted in before Marco could get carried away, "Lets not decide now. Tobias and Ax have to demorph soon. We could think about it and meet back in my barn this evening."

"That's a good idea," Jake jumping to the suggestion. "Tonight at 8, Cassie's barn." He turned to my sister looking kind, but concerned. "It's not that I don't trust you, but I would feel better if Ax and Tobias hung out with you until then."

"No, that's ok. I was hoping they would." She smiled, "I have a lot of catching up to do."

AN: LANDERS! Holla! Enjoy!


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: yadda yadda, I don't, yadda , own yadda, Animorphs….yadda yadda yadda

Chapter 16

Everyone left. Ax ate some more after demorphing and remorphing. He ate until he could not eat any more. I was glad I had eaten earlier during the telling of our trip though time, because any appetite I might have had would have been gone by watching Ax.

"Wow, he can eat, can't he?" Tabitha said a little in disgust, and a little in awe.

"Oh yeah."

"I am finished. The stomach is full. I would like to run now if that is possible." Ax said looking up from the carnage of food.

"Sure. Um, we could go to where you live. We have a lot of time, and I would like to see were you live, Tobias."

"Okay, but I want to fly over." The walls were making me nervous, even in human morph.

"No problem, I'll take my bike."

We headed out. Tabitha went on her bike, and Ax and I went as birds of prey. We guided her the way with the most downhill slopes. Altitude, even on the ground equals speed. She was fantastic. Down every hill she would flap her arms madly and glide down. She seemed to know how to push every grade, how to milk every slope. She was a human of wings. We are definitely related.

We got to Cassie's farm, which is near my meadow and Ax's scoop. She was in there from what I could see in the air. She was trying to give an ugly goose some meds.

She nodded at us in acknowledgement. I swooped in though the hay door and to my usual perch. Ax came in right after.

"Hello. What are you up to?" she asked Tabitha. Cassie had a way of seeing though people seeing what they were really thinking and feeling.

My sister was still smiling from the exhilarating ride. "I'm going to go see Tobias' meadow, and Ax's...well what do you call the place were you live?"

((It is called a scoop.)) Ax replied from the rafter next to me.

"Ax's scoop," Tabitha repeated before turning back to Cassie in question. "May I leave my bike here until tonight?"

"Sure, no problem. Won't your mom be worried? I mean you staying out all day?"

"No, my mom will be at meeting all evening, she won't get back until very, very late," answered Tabitha. I could see her shoulder sloop, and her head hang.

"What sorts of meetings?" Cassie inquired.

"This organization," Tabitha explained. "Just in the past week or two she has really got into it. She has been involved for a while, but lately she has been really busy.

"What organization?"

"The Sharing."


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimer: not only do I not own this, animorphs, but I also disclaim any badness now,because I don't own it, so its not a bad chapter, its just…unowned.

Chapter 17

I nearly fell off my perch. My mother was a controller? That can't be true. It can't. We didn't watch her, but she just can't be.

I felt as if I would die if I stayed in that stuffy barn one minute more. The walls seemed to be closing in on me. I flew out of the barn. As I did, I heard Cassie call out to as she noticed my flight, but I didn't care.

My mother, who I had just found, is the enemy? My disbelief weighed heavy in my mind. The Yeerk in her head was just a puppet master. I had trouble reconciling the thought.

I flew until my wings gave out. I had never flown so hard, even on my missions. I wanted the news that hurt so much to leave.I wanted the dark to swollow the news. My hawk mind did what it always did, and looked at it with a cold view of things. My human mind wanted to do something else. I wanted to fly so hard that the news would not be true. I flew blind and hit my very own tree. Then I fell. My hawk body dropped like a stone.

The impact was painful. My wing was crumpled and broken. My feathers were all out of place, and I was dizzy.

I cannot suddenly have a mother just for her to be taken away! I screamed in thought speak.

If I had not been hurt, I would have heard the hoof falls as they pounded near. If I had been aware, I would have felt gentle hands pick me up. If I had been more awake, I would have noticed my body changing hands. But I felt none of this. The world had gone black, and I lay comatose in my own aguish.

((Hurts…))

"Tobias?"

The voices were far away. Nothing I could do. I just wanted to die.

"Try him with thought speak, Ax."

The sound was irrelevant.

((Tobias, you must wake up now.))

Voices in my head, also meaningless.

((I want to die, it hurts…))

"Tell him, 'She needs him.'"

((Your sister needs you.))

((Tabitha? My sister? My family? Mother!))

"I guess he is awake now," said Rachel.

I opened my eyes. I tried to flap, but I couldn't. It hurt too much.

"There you go, big boy. Don't try to get up. Try morphing," Cassie cooed in her I'm-Talking-To-An-Animal Voice.

Right, good idea. I thought. I focused on the DNA of my human self. A self that now seems foreign to me. A few minutes later I was a very badly dressed, crying human boy.

I saw Tabitha. She looked at me, and then did something I never would have thought of doing.

She hugged me.


	18. Chapter 18

Disclimer: so yes this is indeed something I have written but I swear I do not own it… sorry.

Chapter 18

We stood there hugging for a long time. So long that Marco started joking about it.

"Careful Tobias, she may be your sister, but Rachel will start getting jealous." We all laughed. I laughed as I wiped the tears from my eyes.

We were all here. I demorphed. As good as hugging felt I felt uncomfortable on the ground.

When I morphed back to my hawk body, it was repaired. It is only DNA and that does not get damaged.

I flew up to my perch as my sister went on trial to see if she would indeed become an Animorph.

It started off with an unsettling silence, as if nobody wanted to start.

Everyone was sitting, except Cassie, who was changing the dressing on an over active squirrel.

((Well, I guess I'll start. I think she should.)) I said, surprised at my own boldness.

Marco looked at me. "Well. Okay, other then bird boy up there, I think it's too big of a risk. Remember what happened last time?"

Rachel flashed him a look. "She isn't David, she isn't going to be a rat. I like her, she has guts."

They looked at Ax, who was in his own body. ((I have no opinion. I will go with Prince Jake.))

"Oh no, Ax, we all vote on this one." Jake replied. "And don't call me prince."

((Yes, Prince Jake.)) Ax went on, ((I think she should. If not, she will surely become a controller. Her mother is already one, and if she is one of us she will be better prepared for it.))

"That is just the reason why she shouldn't Ax! Her mother is already a yeerk. She is a big risk. Of anyone, I should know that." Marco's mother is Visser 1, the leader of all yeerks. Even though she is presumed dead by everyone, she is still quite alive.

Cassie came and sat down. She still had not said anything. Her eyes looked to Tabitha and I followed her gaze.

"If a bad man were trying to hurt a baby, what would you do?" she asked.

"I would stop him," Tabitha answered without thinking.

"What if the baby belonged to someone bad, say Hitler?"

"It's not the baby's fault. I would stop the man."

"What if the bad man was a woman, and the baby was going to be Hitler?"

Tabitha thought with this one. After thinking hard, she looked up and said, "If the baby was Hitler, that would mean I would be in the past and whatever I do will affect the future. So maybe my saving Hitler would turn him good. It would at least keep this time line."

"Last question, what if the baby was just a baby and the bad, bad man was your mother?"

She thought and breathed in and out heavily. While Tabitha was breathing the rest of us held our breath.

She looked up and answered, "I would do anything in my power to stop her, and if it meant killing her, I would hope someone else would take that job. I would hope someone else would be there holding me back from trying to save her."

We all breathed out in unison.

"Okay fine. To me, she is in." Marco said.


	19. Chapter 19

Discliamer: even though this is one of my Favorate chapters, I do not own animorphs. Neather do I own myself.

Chapter 19

We took a vote. It was unanimous for her coming in. Even Tabitha voted.

"Okay, so now what do I do," she asked.

"Cassie? Do you have the box?" asked Jake.

"Yea, hold on, let me go get it." She ran to the back of the barn.

When she came out again she was holding a small blue cube in her hand. It was the morphing cube.

It was the cube that started it all.

"Ax," Jake turned to the Andalite, "would you mind doing the honors?"

((I would be honored to, Prince Jake.))

"Don't call me prince."

((Yes, Prince Jake.)) He took the cube.

Tabitha listened attentively as Ax told her how the cube worked. ((When you press your hand on the cube, you will feel a warm sensation. Afterwards, you will have the technology to morph.))

"I feel like we should do something, I dunno, more ceremonial," Cassie put forth.

"What, like sing something?" Rachel bantered. "Don't sing Marco."

"You just wish you could sing as good as I." he bantered back.

((I know what we could do,)) Ax offered.(( If it fits, we could all do our favorite morphs.))

They thought this over. "Yes, I think that is a wonderful idea. If it fits in here." Cassie looked over at Rachel pointedly. Rachel had an elephant morph that she was fond of.

"Okay, okay, no Dumbo in the barn. I wasn't going to pick that one anyway."

They all started to change. I could see a golden muzzle come out of Jake's nose. A fluff of tail came out of Marco's bottom and a layer of white feathers started popping out of Rachel's head, but Cassie remained standing still. Often she was the first to be done. Cassie seemed to have a talent for morphing.

"I can't do my favorite in here," she said.

((Dolphin?)) I asked knowing her love for the playful dolphin well.

Cassie nodded and began to change. At first she was shrinking, and after that she started to develop a white stripe down her back.

Ax lost his tail and gained a mouth.

As for me, I hadn't changed.

((Come on Tobias, that doesn't count,)) Marco called up to me.

I thought about all the morphs I had. No bugs, that was for sure. Then it came to me. I fluttered down and started to form a blue hint to my feathers.

After our morphs were completed, Tabitha was surrounded by a golden retriever, the form chosen by Jake marking his happiness and carefree nature, a bald eagle for Rachel known for its freedom and incredible predator skills, a skunk for Cassie well known for their stink, a way of defending themselves without hurting others, and a human for Ax since he overwhelmingly enjoyed the taste buds and the sounds of the mouth. That left Marco and me. Marco was a… a llama?

((Marco? Why a llama?))

((Because I am by far the cutest of all animals in this barn.)) He answered facetiously.

That left me, bird boy. I chose the truest form for my soul, an Andalite. This form was an exact and accurate copy of Ax. The Andalites were known for their arrogance, but for us, friendship.

"Now place your hand on the cube… ub… ube?" Ax said.

Tabitha was the only one in the barn in her own form, the form she was born to anyway. One could agure that we all were now in our truest forms. She reached out and placed her hand on the cube. Her eyes closed halfway and a moment later...

"Tabitha," beckoned a human voice. "You are done now… ow… wow. You are now an Animorph."


End file.
